Versatile Mage

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

In the southern suburbs of White Head City, a town located quite a distance away from the city… 

The houses were simple, as most of them were built as a temporary shelter for refugees.

Jiang Shaoxu, Mo Fan, and Zhao Manyan were on their way to White Head City. They happened to pass by the settlement.

“Hang on,” Jiang Shaoxu suddenly stopped the other two. She seemed to be listening to something nearby cautiously.

The two were rather confused. Mo Fan was about to say something when Jiang Shaoxu looked at him and asked seriously, “Are you sure that the members of the Red Ornaments Guild that were trying to rob Sweetgrass Village are all imprisoned?”

“Yeah, do you seriously think I’m like the kind who would set them free? Even though the money is little, we did catch them…” Mo Fan said.

“Then why am I sensing a Psychic Trace nearby?” Jiang Shaoxu frowned.

Back at Sweetgrass Village, Jiang Shaoxu had tagged some of the bandits to prevent them from running away. In the end, Mo Fan managed to catch all those bandits and hand them over to the government.

However, when they were passing by the town, Jiang Shaoxu was surprised to sense a few of the Psychic Traces nearby.

“Maybe they were temporarily imprisoned here?” Mo Fan said.

Jiang Shaoxu pointed at the town that was dimly lit and said, “It doesn’t seem like it, they are moving around rapidly like they have been set free, should be that place.”

“Speaking of which, didn’t they arrange the villagers of Sweetgrass Village to stay here?” Zhao Manyan pointed at the town as a thought crossed his mind.

Zhao Manyan was in charge of escorting the villagers to the town. After all, the Red Ornaments Guild was pretty active in this area. Without the protection of the government, the villagers were afraid that the Red Ornaments Guild would return to get their revenge, so they did not stay at their village.

Even Jiang Shaoxu was attacked in Lanshi Town, let alone the unarmed villagers!

“Wait, what? Why are those scum that we caught here in this town where the villagers are at?” said Mo Fan.

“Let’s go take a look,” Jiang Shaoxu said worriedly.

If it weren’t for the Psychic Traces, Jiang Shaoxu would not even notice the bandits were here. The three immediately went to the town after having a bad feeling.

—

In the settlement, the already dim streets were basically pitch-black as the street lamps had been broken. Even if someone happened to pass by, they would not notice there were people living here.

There was no protection, not even fences. The conditions were actually worse than Sweetgrass Village. A few of the Magicians in military uniforms had already fled for their lives. They were no match for the Red Ornaments Guild when they were under attack. The soldiers even had the urge to take off their uniforms!

“Leader, did we overdo it? So many people died. Didn’t Boss Casso warn us to behave, since he’s still trying to reach a deal with the government? Will what we did here make the boss unhappy?” a Magician with a red nose ring said.

“Boss Casso only reminded us not to place him in a difficult position. We just need to place some scales, claws, and corpses of sea monsters here. Isn’t what happened fairly obvious? Do you think the soldiers are going to overlook these obvious clues and come and investigate us?” replied the leader, Luo Ling.

“HAHA, how brilliant, yeah, there wasn’t any protection here. It’s very likely sea monsters would attack the town. (Sigh) Such a hassle! In the past, we could leave our ornaments behind so the people of the Caribbean Sea would know that it’s our doing, but now, we have to cover our acts just like those hypocritical governors,” the man with a nose ring burst out laughing.

A strong tide surged across the place with a loud noise, forming a rapid-flowing current surrounding the town that stopped people from coming in or leaving.

Traces of blood were everywhere on the ground. More than ten villagers were lying still, their bodies full of wounds from being tortured.

The chief knelt on the sand, his face almost buried into it.

His legs were numb, and the blood vessels in his brain were swelling from facing down for too long. However, he did not dare to rise to his feet or raise his head. He knew that if he looked into the man’s eyes, they would not leave a single person alive.

The other villagers were doing the same thing, kneeling on the ground and digging their faces down, like prisoners about to be executed. They were all trembling in fear.

“Old man, didn’t expect this, did you? HAHAHA!” The Magician with a nose ring stepped on the back of the chief’s head and burst into laughter, “Did you think running here is going to save you? For your amusement, White Head City is soon going to be our territory. We almost died laughing when we learned that you came here to seek refuge!”

“Please, just let us go, take whatever you want, just spare our lives! We’re nothing but a bunch of farmers,” the chief struggled to speak.

“And we are no murderers either, there’s no point killing you all. We are only here to teach you that the righteous Hunters aren’t going to save you. Offending us is actually the worst thing you did. I assume you know what you should say if anyone asks?” the Magician asked with a smile.

“Yes, yes, they…they were killed by sea monsters… the sea monsters attacked the village,” the chief answered, trembling.

“Make sure the others hear you, too,” the Magician said.

The chief slowly turned around. His face was covered by mud and blood. He even had trouble opening his eyes. He looked at the villagers with their heads buried into the ground. He had no choice but to swallow the grudge and anger he was feeling and said, “Do…do you all understand? They were killed by sea monsters.”

“Yes, we do!”

“It was the sea monsters that killed them!”

Luo Ling wore a satisfied smile and said, “Your Sweetgrass Village is pretty valuable. Lately, the sweetgrass is being sold at quite a high price in other places. We’ll let you go if you obey us and just keep planting the sweetgrass. White Head City will soon be under our control. If you don’t obey us, you’ll end up like them. Obey us, and you’ll be safe.”

“Yes, sure…”

—

Outside the boundary set up by the spell Rolling Wave, Mo Fan, Zhao Manyan, and Jiang Shaoxu were infuriated upon realizing what had happened.

The Magician with a nose ring… Mo Fan clearly remembered handing him over to the government. He was told that these bandits would be delivered to the Enforcement Union or the Sacred Hall of Liberty and be punished according to their crimes. How did they show up here and pick on the villagers again?

Mo Fan was so furious that he was breathing fire. He did not care how many people the enemy had, and how strong they were, he turned himself into a bolt of purple-black lightning.

After crossing the boundary, Mo Fan swept across the night sky and landed in front of the Magician with a nose ring. The wild lightning spread to the surroundings and formed a shocking lightning web attacking the bandits.

The group of bandits was not very big. There were just over ten of them in total, and the strongest among them, Luo Ling, was only an Intermediate Magician.

Mo Fan lifted Luo Ling up like he was picking up a chick and slammed him hard into the ground!

“It’s…it’s the Magician from the other day!” a little girl from the village blurted out excitedly.

Her eyes flickered eagerly. The Magicians of the Red Ornaments Guild were so strong that they could butcher the villagers like livestock, but in front of the Asian man, they were the livestock waiting to be butchered!

“It’s you again!” the Magician with a nose ring snapped furiously.

Despite his anger, he was soon beaten up by Mo Fan’s terrifying strength.

Mo Fan tore his arms off and stepped on his face!

“You bunch of imbeciles, I spared your lives before, but you dared come back here still!” Mo Fan roared.

Jiang Shaoxu went up to the villagers. She was infuriated when she saw the corpses on the ground that had died horrible deaths.

“Are…are you alright? Quick, rise, we’ve subdued the bandits,” Jiang Shaoxu told them.

The villagers remained on their knees. No one dared to rise.

“Why is it you again? Why did you come and offend them again?!” a woman rose up and cursed furiously in a panic.

Jiang Shaoxu was stunned. She thought she had heard it wrong.

“Please don’t come again, you’re only going to make things worse,” an old, white-haired villager said in a trembling voice.

“Yeah, yeah, we were fine before, but after what you did, they are going to come and get their revenge again. We won’t be able to survive their wrath.”

The villagers did recognize Mo Fan and Jiang Shaoxu, but instead of expressing their gratitude like last time, they were actually blaming them. Jiang Shaoxu was quite dumbfounded.

“We have come here to save you!” protested Jiang Shaoxu.

“Save? How are you going to save us? Just stop getting in their way! They have magic, and are too strong for us. You aren’t scared of them because you can easily beat them, but how about us? Once you leave and they can’t find you, they will just vent their anger on us… will you only stop when everyone in our village is tortured to death?” the old villager replied as she rose to her feet.

“So you’re saying we’ve done something wrong instead?” Jiang Shaoxu uttered a self-mocking laugh.

Jiang Shaoxu was already infuriated by the Red Ornaments Guild’s deeds, yet she felt like her lungs were going to explode after seeing the villagers’ reactions.

Jiang Shaoxu had almost died to the Red Ornaments Guild when they tried to get their revenge in Lanshi Town… because she had saved the villagers!

It was surprising how dumb humans could be when they were overwhelmed by fear and a sense of uselessness. They could not even distinguish between right and wrong. The villagers thought the bandits of the Red Ornaments Guild were being merciful to them, while their rescuers had come to harm them!